Story Friday April 28, 2017

[hkmaly 490]

18 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

Susan is unlikely to be ready for Elliot for years

So how old will Elliot's firstborn be when Susan is ready?

Elliot's? He IS more spontaneous with Ashley, but I still don't expect him having child before finishing university. At least if he and Ashley are planning one. So, Susan might still catch him without children. Or, well ... maybe Elliot's two year old child would be additional incentive for Susan to actually start dating Elliot after Ashley's death. Her maternal instinct might be more active than her sexual drive. And I don't think Elliot would be good at raising so small children ... neither would Ellen, but Nanase will manage it without problems despite THEIR kid having the additional complication of being seyunolu. (Because they don't agree who will be the man, so they use GRACE's form instead.)

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

32 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

So how old will Elliot's firstborn be when Susan is ready?

Susan will know. She likes to watch, remember? * flrrd*

[Scotty 1,061]

2 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

We don't know whether Sirleck's host is doomed.  The old man didn't die until Sirleck released him, and for all we know, he could have released him at some earlier point and he would have lived.  Killing Sirleck while he's on a host is equally unknown re fate of the host.

I still say the old man was taking his final breaths just prior to Sirleck possessing him, Sirleck said "No, old man, you don't get to die yet." which to me says that Sirleck put his death on hold to get his wealth set up he can pick it up with the next host. Of course, as people said, the butler may just be temporary to be able to finish the plan, and it is unknown for certain if all hosts can be released without killing them, but I'd like to think that it's a possibility healthier hosts could survive being separated from a body snatcher like Sirleck.

 

[Tom Sewell 268]

8 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

with Ashley

Did we ever see Elliot kiss Sarah anything like this? And anyway, all I said was Elliot's firstborn.

 

19 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

And I don't think Elliot would be good at raising so small children ... neither would Ellen, but Nanase will manage it without problems despite THEIR kid having the additional complication of being seyunolu. (Because they don't agree who will be the man, so they use GRACE's form instead.)

You mean instead of using Elliot's sperm, or having Tedd change one of them into a male long enough to get a sperm donation? I think Ellen might be up for that.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

His knowledge was perfectly up-to-date and state-of-the-art. Sure, in 19th century that doesn't mean that much compared to 21th century, but EGS's Abraham was considered stupid even in his time.

Well, actually, in original he wasn't famous vampire killer until he killed Dracula. But yes that seems interesting.

Dracula itself was the high-tech thriller of its day, with main characters using wax cylinder voice recording devices and taking high-speed trains cross-country.  But as I said, a doctor would have at least known blood transfusions were very dangerous, moreso the more they were repeated.  And okay, he might not have been a famous vampire killer yet, but any knowledge at all about such an obscure creature was rare, let alone the varied and exacting details Van Helsing brought.  Vampires weren't exactly common knowledge until Stoker made it so.  A brilliant strategy by either the White Council or the Red Court....

11 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

 neither would Ellen, but Nanase will manage it without problems despite THEIR kid having the additional complication of being seyunolu. (Because they don't agree who will be the man, so they use GRACE's form instead.)

Using Grace's form?  The Uryuoms described the TFG as a "cosmetic morphing device" so I'm not convinced that using it (or the watches) to take on someone else's form would change the genes the resulting child would receive.  Or did you mean an egg created by Grace?  We don't know whether she inherited the ability to make an egg on her own, but if she did, or if they could convince William and Gillian to create an egg for them, they might be able to create a child who is biologically equally Ellen's and Nanase's.  Unless there's Uryuom DNA in there, too, the child would be a Lesser Chimera according to Dan's explanation, and would "have some characteristics similar to a Uryuom, but won't truly be Uryuom."  No idea how that might affect a 100% human chimera, as I don't think we've seen one of those yet....

[Scotty 1,061]

18 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Did we ever see Elliot kiss Sarah anything like this?

This looks very close, and note that Elliot considered that kiss to be a meal.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

23 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Did we ever see Elliot kiss Sarah anything like this? 

 

2 minutes ago, Scotty said:

This looks very close, and note that Elliot considered that kiss to be a meal.

 

Here they even went from vertical to horizontal on the couch!

[Scotty 1,061]

32 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

Unless there's Uryuom DNA in there, too, the child would be a Lesser Chimera according to Dan's explanation, and would "have some characteristics similar to a Uryuom, but won't truly be Uryuom."  No idea how that might affect a 100% human chimera, as I don't think we've seen one of those yet....

Hedge and Guineas are lesser chimeras, as they only have human and animal DNA, their shapeshifting is also limited to shifting between human and their animal forms. Vlad(ia) is a greater chimera and (in theory) is able to gain new forms like Uryuoms do, the reason she almost killed herself when she first attempted to shapeshift might have been due to the large number of different types of animal DNA making things unstable until Ellen zapped her, though it's still a theory as Vladia refuses take any chances. Grace having Lespuko DNA allows greater control of her shapeshifting and lets her mix and match features.

If Ellen and Nanase were to have Grace create an egg for them to have a child with, if it was just their DNA involve, then the child would probably still be considered a lesser chimera because of how it was conceived. However, because the child would be a Human/Human lesser chimera, they might not have any shapeshifting ability as there technically isn't a secondary form for them to shapeshift into like Hedge and Ginease have. I have a feeling that the nature of the egg allows it to allow greater compatibility between species, in the case of two different species conceiving through the egg, the resulting child would have the best of both worlds. Same species children wouldn't differ from their parent species aside from maybe the egg screening out any genetic defects the parents might have.

22 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

Here they even went from vertical to horizontal on the couch!

That makeout session didn't really last long due to complcations in coordination.

 

[Tom Sewell 268]

openly

36 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

a doctor would have at least known blood transfusions were very dangerous

I admit, I've never read the novel. Was van Helsing a medical doctor? I'm not sure "doctor" really was a common synonym for a physician then. "Doctor" is a very old term that comes down unchanged from Latin, deriving from "docere" "to teach." It's also the title used by gladiator trainers. And sometimes it applies to people who are very far from healers, such as Dr. Goebbels.

 

30 minutes ago, Scotty said:

This looks very close, and note that Elliot considered that kiss to be a meal.

27 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

Here they even went from vertical to horizontal on the couch!

Yes, and yes. But the like-a-sister factor doesn't apply to Ashley. Even if the transitional woman trope holds here, Elliot won't want to hurt Ashley, and won't want to risk his friendships with Sarah and now with Susan. Plus, what other woman is totally attracted to Elliot's female forms? Well, openly.

[Scotty 1,061]

4 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Yes, and yes. But the like-a-sister factor doesn't apply to Ashley.

The makeout that I linked was days after Elliot and Sarah started dating, and even at Grace's birthday, Elliot didn't show signs of questioning how he really felt about Sarah. Elliot and Ashley's goodnight kiss is days after Elliot asked her out as well so there and Elliot's feeling toward Ashley are pretty strong. Mind you, chances are good that Elliot will still feel this way about Ashley 6 months or so down the road, as opposed to how Elliot went back to behaving as if Sarah and him were just friends and dates were basically hanging out together.

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

So how old will Elliot's firstborn be when Susan is ready?

Unless there is a time skip of multiple years we will never know.

That being said, my 1,000 Q$ is in on five.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

2 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

So how old will Elliot's firstborn be when Susan is ready?

Wasn't it determined that Ellen is Elliot's daughter?

[Tom Sewell 268]

How far into the future is EGS going to go? Dan himself said he didn't expect the characters to stay in high school that long, but this comic is entirely built around the high school trope. Genre high school romance novels end with the senior prom. Second Life Ellen's story ends with the summer after graduation when the old high school gang is splitting up. Are they going to all be recruited (or drafted) into Dad's Government Job? Not likely if magic does change. Are they going to become a superhero team? It's my guess that Dan was considering that fifteen years ago.

What do we really care about in EGS? What I care about is the characters. Strip away the magic and most of them seem real, certainly the Main 8. I care about them. Underneath everything else, EGS is a soap opera, at least to me. It's certainly gone on longer than many overt soap operas. My favorite arc is Grace's Birthday Party, which has no monsters at all unless you count Magus causing Ellen to zap Tedd or the demonic duck.

And the character who I'm most compelled by? Susan. A year ago I wrote a complete fanfic where Susan winds up with Matt Cohen. That would resolve the Susan-and-Elliot-and-Ashley problem, wouldn't it?

@Mlooney, would you put any Q$ on that happening?

[Tom Sewell 268]

4 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Wasn't it determined that Ellen is Elliot's daughter?

So how old will Elliot's nextborn be when Susan is ready?

[mlooney 3,417]

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

Mlooney, would you put any Q$ on that happening?

Nooooope

 

[hkmaly 490]

3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

 neither would Ellen, but Nanase will manage it without problems despite THEIR kid having the additional complication of being seyunolu. (Because they don't agree who will be the man, so they use GRACE's form instead.)

Using Grace's form?  The Uryuoms described the TFG as a "cosmetic morphing device" so I'm not convinced that using it (or the watches) to take on someone else's form would change the genes the resulting child would receive.  Or did you mean an egg created by Grace?  We don't know whether she inherited the ability to make an egg on her own, but if she did, or if they could convince William and Gillian to create an egg for them, they might be able to create a child who is biologically equally Ellen's and Nanase's.  Unless there's Uryuom DNA in there, too, the child would be a Lesser Chimera according to Dan's explanation, and would "have some characteristics similar to a Uryuom, but won't truly be Uryuom."  No idea how that might affect a 100% human chimera, as I don't think we've seen one of those yet....

I meant something between those options: I meant they used Grace's form to produce their own egg, which obviously would be fertilized using their own DNA so it would be lesser chimera.

(Obviously it's unknown if the TFG and/or watches can give someone ability to produce uryuom-style egg with the Grace form ... but it MIGHT work).

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

However, because the child would be a Human/Human lesser chimera, they might not have any shapeshifting ability as there technically isn't a secondary form for them to shapeshift into like Hedge and Ginease have.

It might have two human forms, theoretically ...

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

a doctor would have at least known blood transfusions were very dangerous

I admit, I've never read the novel. Was van Helsing a medical doctor? I'm not sure "doctor" really was a common synonym for a physician then. "Doctor" is a very old term that comes down unchanged from Latin, deriving from "docere" "to teach." It's also the title used by gladiator trainers. And sometimes it applies to people who are very far from healers, such as Dr. Goebbels.

To quote wikipedia: MD, D.Ph., D.Litt., etc, etc, - Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Letters etc ...

2 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

How far into the future is EGS going to go? Dan himself said he didn't expect the characters to stay in high school that long, but this comic is entirely built around the high school trope. Genre high school romance novels end with the senior prom. Second Life Ellen's story ends with the summer after graduation when the old high school gang is splitting up. Are they going to all be recruited (or drafted) into Dad's Government Job? Not likely if magic does change. Are they going to become a superhero team? It's my guess that Dan was considering that fifteen years ago.

Well, we can assume that Lord Tedd was supposed to be solved

I think that similarly to Tolkien, Dan would be writing until death and it will STILL not be finished - but unlike Tolkien, he would be going in one direction and not rewriting and extending.

... pity no author managed to write from other side yet. But wait, that doesn't mean they are not writing - maybe they just can't publish on earth.

Regarding DGB: Yes, they are going to be recruited into DGB, ESPECIALLY if magic changes, because in such case they can easily take it over as only ones with working magic.

2 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

What do we really care about in EGS?

Hard to say. I know that without Grace and the transformations, I wouldn't bother reading long enough to start liking the characters (there wasn't much of magic when I started reading). Of course, now that I like them, I suppose even story lines without magic would be able to keep my attention, but it's better with magic.

 

[Tom Sewell 268]

Maybe Dan was planning to visit the alternate universes. That's similar to the basic Star Trek trope of visit the planet-find the problem-fix the problem-next episode. Lord Tedd is an obvious recurring adversary for that, like Q started out to be in TNG. Ellen's Second Life is another element that would fit. The "You saved the village!" panel at the beginning of Family Ties kind of looks like it might be on a different Earth, or maybe the Other Side. The griffins are very surprised to learn that Nanase and her friends know of several other alternate Earths and have contacted some of their inhabitants. And Edward's new job as head of Paranormal Diplomacy would seem to be exactly the right job for managing contact with other alternates. So, the worlds-next-door trope has at least a few hooks in place if Dan decides to use them.

David Gerrold, the guy who wrote the script for The Trouble With Tribbles, also wrote a book called The World of Star Trek back in the early Seventies. One of his prescient observations was that the Prime Directive in the original series was made to be broken because the Enterprise was like a cosmic Mary Worth. (Mary Worth has been butting in on other people's business since 1938.)

[WR...S 41]

I still miss the TWC forum.

[Scotty 1,061]

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

The "You saved the village!" panel at the beginning of Family Ties kind of looks like it might be on a different Earth, or maybe the Other Side.

That was one of Tensaided's D&D sessions.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

. The "You saved the village!" panel at the beginning of Family Ties kind of looks like it might be on a different Earth, or maybe the Other Side.

 

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

That was one of Tensaided's D&D sessions.

Unless...Tensaieded's game room is a portal to an alternate world.  The players THINK they are roleplaying, but they are actually living the lives of great adventurers, and Sir Robin.

[Tom Sewell 268]

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

That was one of Tensaided's D&D sessions.

1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Unless...Tensaieded's game room is a portal to an alternate world.  The players THINK they are roleplaying, but they are actually living the lives of great adventurers, and Sir Robin.

Mr. Tensaided's game room is big enough for that tent in the background? Or maybe it's just a backdrop. My very first guess was this was something like a Renaissance Faire. My latest alternative is that everything in it is imaginary, including the costumes but excepting Ellen, Nanase, and the wizard who might be Tensaided. That's how Dan's handled instant messaging and magic card game duels. But Dan has usually told us that's what he's doing. So whatever The Dan originally intended, he can still assert with a straight face that the panel did represent a trip to another world and another Mr. Tensaided. Especially since we don't see Dan's face in the comics, unless you want to count George.

And speaking of George, am I ever going to get feedback on my pretty-old theory that George is George because "Daniel Elliot Shive" and "George Eliot"?

[hkmaly 490]

14 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Maybe Dan was planning to visit the alternate universes.

He definitely plans SOME visits.

14 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

That's similar to the basic Star Trek trope of visit the planet-find the problem-fix the problem-next episode.

... however, I don't think he actually plans like dozens of parallel worlds ... more likely, the number of "additional" alternative worlds shown in canon would be smaller than what we already saw in NP and sketchbooks.

10 hours ago, Scotty said:

14 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

The "You saved the village!" panel at the beginning of Family Ties kind of looks like it might be on a different Earth, or maybe the Other Side.

That was one of Tensaided's D&D sessions.

I think it was some LARP. Didn't they even mentioned some LARP elsewhere? (Meanwhile, it being Tensaided is confirmed by commentary.)

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

My latest alternative is that everything in it is imaginary, including the costumes but excepting Ellen, Nanase, and the wizard who might be Tensaided.

They would be unlikely to be solving some imaginary-world problem.

7 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

So whatever The Dan originally intended, he can still assert with a straight face that the panel did represent a trip to another world and another Mr. Tensaided.

Well ... I don't think so, on the other hand, after the griffin proved to be real, can't completely reject it ...

7 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

And speaking of George, am I ever going to get feedback on my pretty-old theory that George is George because "Daniel Elliot Shive" and "George Eliot"?

Sounds unlikely. Dan, who only reads books about wizards named Harry, probably don't even know him.

 

[Scotty 1,061]

24 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I think it was some LARP. Didn't they even mentioned some LARP elsewhere? (Meanwhile, it being Tensaided is confirmed by commentary.)

The only mention of LARPing that I can think of was during So a Date, when Tara zoomed past Rick, Elijah and Rhea, and Dan clarifying what LARPers were in the commentary makes me believe it had never been mentioned before. Tensaided did ask Grace if she'd be interested in joining his RPG group, I'm wondering if she took him up on that and at some point couldn't make it to a session so asked Ellen and Nanase to fill in for her.

[hkmaly 490]

52 minutes ago, Scotty said:

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

I think it was some LARP. Didn't they even mentioned some LARP elsewhere? (Meanwhile, it being Tensaided is confirmed by commentary.)

The only mention of LARPing that I can think of was during So a Date, when Tara zoomed past Rick, Elijah and Rhea, and Dan clarifying what LARPers were in the commentary makes me believe it had never been mentioned before. Tensaided did ask Grace if she'd be interested in joining his RPG group, I'm wondering if she took him up on that and at some point couldn't make it to a session so asked Ellen and Nanase to fill in for her.

They don't look to be filling for a rogue.

[Tom Sewell 268]

I was just re-re-re-re-re... I was just reading Family Ties again (I've re-read it so many times I've lost count) and I saw something I missed before. Take a look at Rhea in the first two panels, especially in the second panel where Diane dives past Rhea. Diane leaves sort of a white streak behind her--and Rhea is naked! Was this just a gag, or did Dan plant another hint about something there?

Naked Rhea may be old news to long-time EGS fans. This forum doesn't go back that far. When I first started reading EGS Elliot and Ashley were already on their date at the Mall (so it was only five days ago, sort of.)